


One True Pairing

by chicafrom3



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Adjustment Period, Bonding, Community: 1sentence, F/M, Marriage, Moving On, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-17
Updated: 2006-08-17
Packaged: 2017-10-18 03:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/184487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicafrom3/pseuds/chicafrom3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barbara believed in the innate goodness of people; Ian believed in Barbara.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One True Pairing

#01 – Motion  
It seemed like their whole lives were spent running after they met the Doctor: running from Daleks, running from revolutionaries, running from monsters and people alike, but always running together.

#02 – Cool  
She thought to herself that he looked rather too adorable in an ulster big enough for two, preparing to step out into the snowy unknown.

#03 – Young  
Ian felt young again, gripping Barbara's hand tightly because she was the only familiar thing in their surroundings.

#04 – Last  
At last Barbara reached home, but it was two years late and it wasn't home anymore: Ian was.

#05 – Wrong  
Years later and she still wakes up shouting in the middle of the night, fighting against Daleks that aren't there.

#06 – Gentle  
He was gentle with her while she cried from homesickness and loneliness and fear and futility, and she clung to him in return.

#07 – One  
The first day they met, she was all business; shook his hand, smiled at him, and didn't think much of the meeting.

#08 – Thousand  
It felt like it took a thousand battles before they set foot in 1965 London again, and the relief of it sent them giggling like children all over the city.

#09 – King  
She stopped short in the middle of a lesson about King Richard, memories that she'd thought put safely away suddenly flooding in again, and felt a wave of homesickness she'd never expected.

#10 – Learn  
"Well, why did you become a teacher?" Ian asked, smiling, and Barbara answered, "Because I love to learn."

#11 – Blur  
Their return is a blur of questions and information, and they have no answers (at least, no answers that anyone would believe).

#12 – Wait  
Until her dying day, Barbara wondered if one day the Doctor would come back into their lives as suddenly as the first time, full of bluster and demands and that oddly endearing refusal to admit mistakes.

#13 – Change  
"You ran off with Miss Wright without a word of explanation to anyone, show up two years later acting like a completely different person, and you think I shouldn't be worried, Ian?"

#14 – Command  
Ian was always able to command respect among his students, but it is with a group of cavemen, thousands and thousands of years before either of them was born, that Barbara begins to really understand why.

#15 – Hold  
"Hold on to me, Barbara, and we'll get out of this, safe and sound; I promise."

#16 – Need  
She phoned him a dozen times a day, and he knew why even though she couldn't quite articulate it.

#17 – Vision  
"A vision in silks," he said, jokingly, but his eyes were serious and awed as he looked her over in her new dress.

#18 – Attention  
They first became friends because she was in the teachers' lounge and willing to listen when he needed to vent after a bad class.

#19 – Soul  
Barbara believed in the innate goodness of people; Ian believed in Barbara.

#20 – Picture  
There is a photograph on the mantle: Ian and Barbara with their arms around each other, with an old man and a young dark-haired girl; Barbara picks it up often, needing to remember.

#21 – Fool  
"No fool like an old fool," Ian said cheerfully, once the Doctor had gone far enough ahead to be out of earshot; Barbara poked him viciously in the ribs.

#22 – Mad  
They fight sometimes, bickering and sniping and small petty cruelties, but they can't stay angry with each other for very long.

#23 – Child  
Barbara never would have guessed that poking her nose into strange Susan Foreman's business would have led to this.

#24 – Now  
There are spaceships in the sky and people on the roof, and Ian and Barbara sit in their room, trading memories of the far distant future, so the Earth _can't_ end today.

#25 – Shadow  
Her loss with the Aztecs overshadows her for a long time, and Ian resists the urge to try to fix things for her, because he knows he can't.

#26 – Goodbye  
It hurts to say goodbye to the Doctor and Vicki, but they are still together and that's enough for them.

#27 – Hide  
They are hiding from one threat or another when they share their first kiss; later, neither of them mentions it, but Barbara's smile is just a shade brighter.

#28 – Fortune  
Barbara was awed by the ability to see history unfolding before her eyes, Ian by the technology he got to learn, and their time on the TARDIS was the greatest treasure either of them could have asked for.

#29 – Safe  
They ran into the TARDIS, and when Barbara collapsed laughing into his chest, he wondered when the strange machine had become their safe harbor.

#30 – Ghost  
For years, Ian had to look into every blue police box he passed, just to be sure; even now, he slows his pace when he sees one.

#31 – Book  
"I wonder," Ian mused one day, "Will we ever look in a history book and find our names, or our pictures?"

#32 – Eye  
"We don't see eye to eye on some things," Barbara allowed, "But we always listen to each other."

#33 – Never  
"Are you going to leave?" Ian asked before they walked into his parents' flat to start rebuilding their lives; Barbara didn't have to answer.

#34 – Sing  
The day he asked her to marry him, she felt like shouting, like singing, like dancing, but she just kissed him instead.

#35 – Sudden  
A junkyard, a police box, an old man, and two nosy schoolteachers; it never fails to surprise her, looking back on how sudden the end of her safe little world was, and she never regrets it…well, not much.

#36 – Stop  
It ends just as suddenly: a wild chase across time, a fight for their lives, and a Dalek machine, and they're back at home.

#37 – Time  
"'I wasted time,'" Barbara quoted reflectively, standing on a beach a million years in the future, "'And now doth time waste me'…" and Ian grabbed her hand.

#38 – Wash  
The alien sky is awash with colors—purples, silvers, golds, greens—colors Barbara has no name for—but Ian is standing beside her, and she doesn't feel homesick, not at all.

#39 – Torn  
Barbara halfway hated the Doctor for turning Susan out of the TARDIS, halfway admired him for doing something so surprisingly selfless; Ian was not so torn.

#40 – History  
She became a teacher because she loved learning and loved history, both of which served the TARDIS group well.

#41 – Power  
He had never craved power, not like some, and finding out how others abused the power invested in them only turned his stomach.

#42 – Bother  
"Ian, I hate to bother you, but if it's not too much trouble would you hand me my towel?"

#43 – God  
Barbara prayed nightly for the safety of Susan, the Doctor, and Vicki; Ian simply hoped.

#44 – Wall  
Walls and defenses broke down quickly in those early days of traveling; Ian rather thought they were better off for it.

#45 – Naked  
"It's not like you're naked, Miss Wright," he said innocently, and walked off, leaving a bikini-clad Barbara sputtering in his wake.

#46 – Drive  
"I need to get away from school," she said softly in between classes; fifteen minutes later they were in his car, and it was almost like old times.

#47 – Harm  
"I will never let anything bad happen to you," he promised, and hoped to God he could keep that promise.

#48 – Precious  
He considered her something precious and dear, that must be cared for and protected, but he also knew she was strong and resilient, and he never bothered trying to resolve the paradox.

#49 – Hunger  
A good, hearty London breakfast had never smelt so good, but Ian caught Barbara's eye and she forgot all about bacon and eggs.

#50 – Believe  
"Sometimes it's hard to believe in what happened to us, but then I look at you and it all feels real again."


End file.
